Google Drive: Dropbox Killer?

[DaFace]

Google finally announced their cloud storage solution today and, at least based on the marketing materials, it looks pretty damn sweet. Basically, Dropbox features at half the price, plus all sorts of Google integration. It's going to be interesting to see how it all works out.

Blog post with the announcement:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/...es-really.html

Drive website:
http://drive.google.com

[DaFace]

P.S. Arash - if you happen to find this thread one of these days, good luck! I can't imagine it's easy to suddenly having Google jump in as a direct competitor.

[mdchiefsfan]

The only thing I don't like is after 5G you have to pay MONTHLY for the excess storage.

[QuikSsurfer]

Originally Posted by DaFace

P.S. Arash - if you happen to find this thread one of these days, good luck! I can't imagine it's easy to suddenly having Google jump in as a direct competitor.

Heh, he's the first person I thought of when I read the thread title. Dude has got to be ballin now. Dropbox is a hit.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by mdchiefsfan

The only thing I don't like is after 5G you have to pay MONTHLY for the excess storage.

While true, that's how pretty much all of the cloud storage services work.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by mdchiefsfan

The only thing I don't like is after 5G you have to pay MONTHLY for the excess storage.

Also, it doesn't give you free beer and blowjobs. I mean WTF? What a rip off....

[DaFace]

Here's a decent run-down via a reddit comment:

Here are a few advantages of Google Drive:

• Paid plans are cheaper
• Offers more free space (unless you have dropbox referrals)
• Images and videos uploaded through Google+ do not count against your available space (restrictions apply)
• Document collaboration ala Google Docs
• Supports online viewing for "over 30 filetypes" including photoshop, illustrator and HD Video (not sure how the support stacks up to dropbox)
• Sync appears to be much faster than dropbox
• Space also applies to other google products: gmail & picasa
• Shared files give you a commenting and chat interface - which is actually more useful than it sounds
• If you happen to be grandfathered into a google storage plan the prices are DIRT CHEAP.
• The Google Drive icon is way more awesome than the Dropbox icon, especially the menubar icons on OS X.
• Google docs are sync'd to your desktop AS google docs. I'm not sure if this is an advantage or not, but it does provide an extra security measure against access to those documents.
• Improved search over Dropbox - including OCR recognition of PDFs, etc. This is really nice for eBooks.
• Files can be kept forever even if you stop paying. Stop paying and your files over the free storage limit will remain with read-only access as long as you want them. You could consider it pay once forever hosting.
• File-level app permissions. Apps don't need access to your entire dropbox, you can grant them access to a single file.

The one area where Dropbox is a win is existing integration, but Google Drive has everything necessary to be built into apps in the same way and is already supported by autodesk, aviary, and several others.

Things that both Dropbox and Google Drive have:

• 30 Day Versioning
• Selective sync
• Desktop apps for OS X & Windows, Android, and iOS (coming soon for Google Drive)

Here are a few advantages of Dropbox:

• Desktop support (right click share)
• Adjustable sync speed
• Lan Sync
• Sync progress status
• Native Linux Client

[mdchiefsfan]

Originally Posted by DaFace

While true, that's how pretty much all of the cloud storage services work.

I haven't ever really used a cloud storage, but I guess it makes sense to do it that way. Just seems a bit too pricey and deters me from wanting to use one.

[Fish]

$2.50/mo for 25GB of guaranteed cloud storage accessible anywhere from any device? And that's "too pricey"? Seriously?

Are you an Ethiopian farmer or something?

[Thig Lyfe]

Man, I've already got a shit-****ton of GBs on Dropbox from all the referrals I made. **** a Google Drive.

[mdchiefsfan]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

$2.50/mo for 25GB of guaranteed cloud storage accessible anywhere from any device? And that's "too pricey"? Seriously?

Are you an Ethiopian farmer or something?

I could be.... I just hate having to pay monthly rates for anything. At some point it should just be yours.

EDIT: I understand it can be compared to netflix or even any of your monthly bills. But when I can go out and buy SD cards and be done paying why would I want to pay monthly?

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by mdchiefsfan

I could be.... I just hate having to pay monthly rates for anything. At some point it should just be yours.

The difference is that there's an ongoing cost (to the provider) for stuff like this. It would be one thing if they just sold you a chunk of hard drive space, but they still have to pay for the power for the drive, the bandwidth to and from the server, the development of the software to facilitate the process, etc. It's a service - not a product - and you can never "possess" a service.

[mdchiefsfan]

Originally Posted by DaFace

The difference is that there's an ongoing cost (to the provider) for stuff like this. It would be one thing if they just sold you a chunk of hard drive space, but they still have to pay for the power for the drive, the bandwidth to and from the server, the development of the software to facilitate the process, etc. It's a service - not a product - and you can never "possess" a service.

Like I said, I do understand the reasoning for monthly charges; just not my cup of tea at the moment. Maybe you could educate me further. Does it offer anything that a standard SD card doesn't?

[Fish]

Originally Posted by mdchiefsfan

I could be.... I just hate having to pay monthly rates for anything. At some point it should just be yours.

That's a neat idea... it would be like pay once forever hosting or something...

Originally Posted by Google Drive

Files can be kept forever even if you stop paying. Stop paying and your files over the free storage limit will remain with read-only access as long as you want them. You could consider it pay once forever hosting.

We're talking about $2.50/mo to have files accessible from anywhere on dedicated secure servers that you yourself never have to worry about from now until the end of human civilization. Less than 10 years ago, nobody except millionaires could have afforded something like that. This is really amazing technology available for less than a hamburger a month and you're just pooping all over it.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by mdchiefsfan

I could be.... I just hate having to pay monthly rates for anything. At some point it should just be yours.

EDIT: I understand it can be compared to netflix or even any of your monthly bills. But when I can go out and buy SD cards and be done paying why would I want to pay monthly?

Do your SD cards automatically transfer data between your various devices? Can you send someone a link to a picture on your SD card? Do your SD cards automatically back themselves up with near infinite redundancy? Of course not.

It appears that you're looking at this just as a way to store data (and, therefore, increase your available storage space). That's not what you're paying for. You're paying for the convenience of 1) having your data available anytime, anywhere, and on any device and 2) having it all backed up instantly.